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The White Anchoret

Emily Dickinson is called “A Modern Sapho”. She is blamed for the possible implicit nymphomania and supposed to be a saint. “The White Anchoret” is the most mysterious poet in the whole history of literature. The secret of the phenomenon of Emily Dickinson still hasn’t been revealed by the numerous critics and analysts of her poetry. But her raucous creations seem unlikely to be the key to the mystery of the eternal virgin.

Emily Dickinson was born in a rural town Amherst, Massachusetts. The town was a settlement of puritans, and the single religious community there was the Congregational Church.

The Dickinson family was a traditional puritan one- the prudish and rather wealthy. The head of the family was a respectful person who was a practicing lawyer. During the period from 1853 to 1855 he was a congressman. The young Emily loved him very much and the father often coddled her. The mother of Emily Dickinson was a closed strict woman who was a religious fanatic. The relationships of Emily Dickinson and her mother couldn’t be called warm and affectionate.

The relatives of young Emily didn’t guess that she was secretly writing poems as she used to hide them carefully.

Emily Dickinson lived quietly in her room upstairs. Her junior sister Lavinia did all the housework and prevent Emily from the bothering communication.

There were some gossips in the town that Emily Dickinson had secretly taken the monastic vows. Like proving these talks the poet starts wearing only white garments since 1870. What was happening indeed can’t be found out as her letters were accurately blue-penciled by her relatives.

In the end of 1870s the poet was deeply depressed by the death of her mother and her single beloved. She takes the decision to accept the freewill hermitage.

Emily Dickinson died in May in 1886 in her own room. The note she left said: “Junior cousins. Called back”.